Bright blue light observed in night sky

Robin Wier wrote:
"CNJ999" wrote in message
ups.com...
The description is precisely what might be expected from seeing a
distant but intense electric transformer or major powerline arc. Since
the actual source was hidden by a nearby building, it would be
impossible to tell if the source was situated low in the sky or simply
at the horizon. Likewise, the writer says the flash was 40-degrees wide
and high, impying a source very close to zero elevation...or simply at
groundlevel. An electric arc can be extremely bright and intense even
at a distance beyond which sound will carry. It is intensely bluish and
will also tend to momentarily blind your night vision ("...the light
being sucked out of the sky"). Likewise, such an event often will have
a duration of a second or two. Considering the description, I see no
reason to believe this was a celestial phenomena.

CNJ999


Here in Phoenix, AZ, the city sits on a large, flat valley floor. Intense
t-storms often produce such events. I refer to them as "blown transformers".
On rare occasions two "go off" side by side in quick succession. These
produce a double flash not unlike the OP's observation. At the right
distance these can easily fill a large portion of the sky with a beautiful
blue-green hue lasting 1-3 seconds.

A blown transformer sounds like a cannon going off, though (I had one
across the street wake me up at about 3 am a couple years ago). Was
there any accompanying sound?

Anonymous AtWork wrote:
A blown transformer sounds like a cannon going off, though (I had one
across the street wake me up at about 3 am a couple years ago). Was
there any accompanying sound?

There is audiable sound only if the transformer failure is relatively
nearby. I've seen their sky show at a distance of around 3-8 miles
without any sound being heard (I live in an area where such failures
are relatively common).

CNJ999

"Chris L Peterson" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 5 Jun 2006 05:53:58 -0400, "George"
wrote:

I was thinking maybe it was an Iridium flare. Here is a chart of the
iridium flares that were possible to see over victoria over the last 48
hours If nothing else, this should rule it in or out one way or another:

The maximum intensity of an Iridium flare is only about -8, and the
description provided by the OP made it sound as if the event was much
brighter than that. Personally, I've never seen an Iridium flare as
anything other than white. But people's perception of both color and
intensity is quite variable, and as you note, the possibility of an
Iridium flare is very testable.

_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

It was just a thought. I saw a very bright one about a year ago, but I
don't remember if it had any color other than white. Someone else suggested
that it could have been a transformer or an electric arc, which seems a
reasonable explanation, except I don't think he mentioned anything about
the loud boom that usually accompanies a blown transformer.

George

I saw something similar while driving along the freeway one time.

I finally figured out it was the spark from an electric train, combined
with a light fog. I only figured it out because the train line ran
alongside the freeway at one point, and a train just happened to go past
and make a bit of a spark which lit up the entire area.

Any train lines (or tram line) in the direction of the flash? There was
a heavy fog the next morning, so it may have been the start of the fog
at that time.

Rob.


"CNJ999" wrote in message
ups.com...
The description is precisely what might be expected from seeing a
distant but intense electric transformer or major powerline arc.
Since
the actual source was hidden by a nearby building, it would be
impossible to tell if the source was situated low in the sky or simply
at the horizon. Likewise, the writer says the flash was 40-degrees
wide
and high, impying a source very close to zero elevation...or simply at
groundlevel. An electric arc can be extremely bright and intense even
at a distance beyond which sound will carry. It is intensely bluish
and
will also tend to momentarily blind your night vision ("...the light
being sucked out of the sky"). Likewise, such an event often will have
a duration of a second or two. Considering the description, I see no
reason to believe this was a celestial phenomena.

CNJ999

Frack,
It could be a lot of things...but I would suspect that the explanations
with the highest probabilities are either an electrical transformer that
exploded, a large meteor, or lightening at or below the horizon. My money is
on the electrical transformer. They can be quite spectacular when the blow.

Randy L.
--
Remember: Any landing that you can
walk away from, is a landing that you
can be fined, sued, or prosecuted for.

"Frackshat" wrote in message
ups.com...
Hi there,
Here is a description of a very stange phenomenon I observed last
night. I have no idea what caused this. If anyone has any good ideas
please let me know. (A web search only reveals a couple of similar
experiences, but most of them seem to be posted on "UFO" type forums,
and hence the conversations tend to become a bit... muddy.)

I was in Cheltenham, Victoria (Australia), outside looking at the
stars. It was about 10:30 pm, Sunday June 4th. Conditions were clear;
there was no cloud and the stars were as bright as ever. The moon was
almost exactly half, and was towards the West - probably WNW about 40
degrees above the horizon.

My first observation was of the sky actually dimming. (This could have
been because I had just blinked and opened my eyes at the time that an
initial flash was fading. However, it left me with the impression that
the the light in the sky had been sucked away, and then emitted in the
flash that as to follow. In fact the more I think about, this initial
impression is also my considered lasting impression - it was as though
the light was being sucked into a single point and then released in a
huge silent explosion of light. Stupid as that sounds, read on...)

The flash followed almost immediately. I would estimate that between
the time I saw the sky start to fade until the blue flash began was
about half a second. The blue light flash was very bright, and it
filled probably 40 degrees of the horizon and to a height of about 40
degrees. It seemed to have a point source, but that was obscured by a
building so I can't say what was at the middle of it. I heard no
noise, but I was not in an entirely silent environment; I think I would
have heard a loud noise such as thunder, but not a quieter one such as
the sound of a distant flare. The glow seemed to come from ground
level or not much above, from a direction roughly SSE. It was more a
pulse than a flash, lasting less than a second.

The colour of the flash I would describe as not a natural colour. That
is not to say that this was not a natural phenomenon, but the colour
was not like any other you usually associate with the sky - it was not
the blue of the sky, lightning or stars. It was darkish, yet very
bright. Not dark blue, but tending more towards dark than light blue.
Perhaps a bit like a luminescent ocean blue.

Someone I was with also saw the light, although she had her eyes
half-closed so did not get a good look at it - she described it as
whitish. Perhaps she had seen the initial flash that I had missed?

My intial thoughts were that it might have been:
- a flare, but the spread was too wide and I saw no moving object.
- an explosion, possibly of an electrical station, but there was no
noise, the colour was wrong and the house lights stayed on!
- lightning, but it did not come from above and it did not flicker.

Perhaps it was some sort of "Aurora"? I have never seen anything like
it and I can't explain it.

-- ff

Frackshat wrote:

I was in Cheltenham, Victoria (Australia), outside looking at the
stars. It was about 10:30 pm, Sunday June 4th. Conditions were

The power failed in Mordialloc and Aspendale at about that time...
And yeah, as others have said, transformers do go off "with a bang", and
a fantastic blue flash...

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